Businesses need to hire employees to fill roles in their operations. A hiring authority can recruit employees internally or externally. As a recruiter, you need to understand the difference between internal vs. external recruitment. You might have potential clients ask why they should work with a recruiter instead of doing their own hiring. Being able to explain recruiting types and the advantages of your efforts will help you land more job orders.
What is external recruitment?
With external recruitment, businesses source candidates outside of the organization. Job seekers who are not currently employed with the business are hired. Businesses can use a recruiter’s specialized skills and large candidate pool to make finding external applicants easier.
External recruitment methods
Recruiters can use external recruitment methods to find candidates for their clients. There are several sourcing strategies in recruitment for finding candidates outside of your client’s company. The following are common external sources of recruitment.
Job Boards
Post your client’s opening on the top job boards to recruit external candidates. The job advertisement should include a detailed description. Include the skills and qualities your client is looking for. Consider job board integration with your website and applicant tracking system. The applicant tracking system will organize candidates who apply through the job board for you.
Social Media
Use social media recruiting to find outside candidates. If a job seeker has never worked for your client, you will need to build trust with them. Interact on social media consistently to form relationships.
Website
Include job openings on your recruiting website. Your clients can also advertise jobs on their websites. The more you advertise a position, the larger your candidate pool becomes. Increasing the number of interested candidates helps you find a good match for your client.
Referrals
One great way to find candidates is through recruiting referrals. You find referred candidates through your network. Let your client list and candidate pool know you appreciate referrals. Keep in touch with past candidates and clients who can refer you to leads.
Advantages of external recruitment
Since your recruiting firm is an external recruitment method for clients, you need to be able to explain its advantages to your clients. Use the benefits of external recruitment to promote your services. The following are positive outcomes of external recruiting.
Gain new perspectives
External candidates have unique backgrounds that offer different methods and ideas to clients. The worker might know a more efficient way to complete tasks. Clients benefit from a fresh view of their operations and opportunities to improve.
Larger candidate pool
External recruitment gives you a larger candidate pool than sourcing within a business. By increasing the number of potential hires, businesses get more options to fill open positions.
Increase branding
External recruiting helps establish an employer brand that attracts high-quality candidates. By advertising the job through multiple channels, people recognize your brand and company culture.
What is internal recruitment?
Businesses can use internal recruitment to source candidates within the existing workforce. With internal recruitment, a job is offered to someone who already works for the company. Though internal hiring is sometimes limiting, it can also be simpler than external recruiting.
Internal recruitment methods
Usually, a recruiter will not help a client source candidates internally. Hiring authorities can use the following internal recruiting methods to find a candidate within a business.
Promotion
To fill a higher-level position, hiring managers could promote an existing employee. Since hiring managers already work with the employee, they know the worker’s capabilities.
Internal Advertisement
Hiring managers can promote a position within the business to internally recruit. They can hang notices in break rooms and on bulletin boards, and send a memo to employees. If the job is posted online, include “internal only” in the job description.
Temp to hire
Sometimes, businesses hire employees to do temporary work. Temporary employees can be hired on full time, which is often referred to as temp to direct, or temp to hire. Hiring a temporary employee on full time often results in more hours worked, increased responsibilities, and higher pay. This also involves the client company having to pay a contract conversion fee to the recruiter for having sourced the worker. Hiring managers can test a temporary employee’s skills before onboarding them for full-time work.
Hire a retired employee as a contractor
A retired employee has experience with the business and the tasks that need to be completed. Hiring a retired employee as a contract worker could be simpler than sourcing a new, outside candidate for short-term jobs.
Advantages of internal recruitment
As a recruiter, you are usually not involved with internal recruiting for clients. But, you should know the advantages of internal recruitment. That way, you can talk about how your services differ from other hiring options. The following are benefits of internal recruitment.
Employees know the business
If a business hires an existing employee, the worker already understands how the organization operates. They have experience with the work culture and day-to-day tasks. And, they know their co-workers. The onboarding process might be simpler than hiring externally.
Hiring managers know the employee
Hiring authorities have an existing relationship with the employee. There is no need to start a whole new relationship when the position is filled. And, trust is already established between the business and employee.
Employees grow within a business
If an employee feels they are stuck in a position and can’t advance at the business, they are likely to find a job elsewhere. Internal recruiting gives existing employees more opportunities within an organization, which can be motivating and help with retention. 